


Oh, Hello Again

by drkm2000



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Chance Meetings, F/F, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 23:35:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17212955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drkm2000/pseuds/drkm2000
Summary: "There weren’t many, if any, ways to delicately say 'I accidentally dumped food court Chinese food on her head.'"Aka Yang meets a cute faunus girl and continues to repeatedly run into her.





	Oh, Hello Again

**Author's Note:**

> This was my submission for a Secret Santa exchange for That Writing Place over on discord, where I'm known as Hufflepuffle.   
> I haven't been to college, so if the depiction of classes and dorms are inaccurate, that's why. Hope you enjoy the story!

Yang had known for a while that she liked girls. It started in middle school, when the other girls were freaking out over this or that male celebrity with six-pack abs or a strong jawline, and while those celebrities were handsome and all, Yang more often admired curves and soft skin. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just more of an “Oh. Huh. That makes sense.” Her family and friends knew, and anyone that didn’t know could probably guess from her favorite shirt, a tank top that said in big rainbow letters ‘Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new.’ As she got older and started college, however, Yang noticed that she’d go through periods where she wasn’t interested in anyone whatsoever, and then someone just walking by would catch her eye and make her go,  _ shit, I’m gay _ .

Take today, for example.

“Okay! Say ‘cheese!’” said the sweet red-haired girl behind the camera. The bells on her elf hat jingled as she leaned to look through the camera. Jaune and Yang stood beside her, making silly faces, and Jaune’s nephew giggled from his seat on Santa’s lap. The camera flashed, and Yang followed Jaune and his nephew away from the photo-taking area to the attendant on the computer.

Jaune, Yang, and the little one were at the mall, doing some last-minute shopping, for friends and family, and Jaune’s sister and her wife had sent their son along because they wanted him to have a picture with Santa and yet had been working too much to do so.

And thus, here they were. Not that that was an issue, of course; the kid was an absolute sweetie and liked it when Yang picked him up and spun him around. No, the issue was when the three of them approached the computer and Yang saw the attendant.

“Hello. How would you like your pictures?” the girl said, her golden eyes calmly looking up amidst a curtain of raven black hair. Yang’s breath caught in her throat, and her entire being went  _ Oh.  _ The heavens shone light down on the girl, making her hair glitter, and bells in Yang’s head rang-

Wait, no, that was just the bells on the elf costume as the girl turned her head, and the light was just the sun coming out from behind a cloud, visible through the mall’s skylights.

Still, the girl was pretty, and Yang found herself staring and not listening to anything around her as Jaune paid for the pictures. She was pulled out of the clouds by a little tug on her leg, and she looked down to see Jaune’s nephew standing beside her and holding up his arms.

“Up, up!” his high voice said, and Yang was happy to oblige. Babies in movies were like little wingmen, right? She swooped up the kid, hoisting him up on her hip. The boy’s big eyes scanned around him, and when they landed upon the attendant, he burbled adorably and smiled. The girl smiled back, and the child smiled wider.

The girl softly said, “Hey there, little guy. Did you enjoy your time with Santa?”

He excitedly burbled some more, and she huffed in amusement.

“Good. I take it you can’t talk a lot yet, hmm?”

He shook his little head. Jaune interjected, “It’s a work in progress. He’s a picked up a few words, though. We have to be careful what we say around him, heh.” His hand rose to scratch the back of his neck, and over his shoulder Yang saw the person that had taken the picture, a girl with bright red hair and green eyes, glancing at Jaune out of the corner of her eye. Hmm. Noted.

Then the next customer came over to the desk to buy their pictures, and Yang’s trio had to leave. She snuck one last look at the girl, and as Jaune’s nephew babbled out a goodbye, Yang thought that the girl looked at her and smiled.

..........……..............................................................................

“Well, that was a success!” Yang said, stretching her arms above her head. “Now we can go back to your parents’ house and wrap all these presents!” Jaune hummed in agreement as he took a bite out of his sandwich. Beside him, his nephew munched on some goldfish. Yang had already finished her food court feast of a small quesadilla, though she still felt slightly hungry. Looking around, her eyes fell upon a Chinese place, and her stomach called out to her. Getting up from the table, she said, “I think I’m going to go get a little bit more food. Be right back.” Jaune nodded, and Yang maneuvered through the crowd and obtained a big pile of orange chicken doused in that terrible, disgustingly good syrup that food court Chinese places always drench their food in. While she was paying, she found a coupon for a free milkshake at this chicken place across the food court, so she began to make her way over there.

However, she started to walk quickly, and she wasn’t paying attention when she arrived at a patch of tile upon which sat a ‘Caution! Wet floor!’ sign. In hindsight, what happened next really wasn’t that unexpected.

Her foot slipped. Her syrupy Chinese food was airborne. Yang fell hard on her rear end. But, worst of all, her food didn’t fall on her, as she had expected. Oh no, it flew through the air as if in slow motion and landed with a  _ smack _ right. On the head. Of the person behind her.

Yang looked at the plate of food in shock as it slid down the poor victim’s face. To her horror, the victim was none other than the cute attendant from Santa’s grotto, dressed in street clothes and likely about to leave the mall for the day. The plate plopped onto the floor, and the cute girl took a deeeeeep breath. Her eyes were closed, and when they opened and narrowed at her, Yang felt her thoughts quietly go  _ oh no she’s mad. _ They looked at each other, Yang in shock and regret and the girl in irritation and embarrassment.

Then the girl turned on her heel and started stalking toward the bathrooms.

Yang scrambled to her feet, almost falling again as she ran after the girl. “Wait! I’m sorry!” And then she followed her into the bathroom, because it was really the least she could do to help the girl clean up, right?

She burst into the restroom and immediately rushed to the girl’s side. 

“I am so, so sorry! I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine,” the girl interrupted, waving a hand dismissively. “I’ve got it.”

Yang hesitated, not wanting to just leave the girl to clean up on her own. “Really, I can help! Oh, your bow is all messed up,” she insisted, reaching for the ribbon that drooped under the weight of the syrup. That was apparently a grave mistake, because the girl recoiled.

“I said, I’ve got it,” she snapped. “Now leave me alone.” The ribbon flattened itself, catching Yang’s attention. Bows didn’t just flatten by themselves. She looked at the girl in surprise.  _ Huh,  _ she thought,  _ her pupils are almost oval-shaped, like a…..ohhhhh, she’s a faunus. Does she feel too unsafe to let her ears show? Shit, does she think I’m going to hurt her? _

Yang realized with a jolt that she had been staring, and now the girl was seriously glaring at her. She tried to say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to stare,” but what she blurted out instead was, “I’m sorry you’re a faunus.” 

That went over about as well as you’d expect: the girl blinked in shock, then tensed. 

“Wait, that’s not what I meant! It’s totally fine that you’re a faunus. Good, even! Your eyes are really pretty, and you have every right to exist as humans do, and-” The words rushed out before Yang could stop them, accompanied by vague hand movements. When her brain caught up with her mouth, she slammed it shut. There wasn’t any salvaging this conversation. Taking a deep breath, she pointed to the door and said, “I’m so sorry. I’ll just….I’ll just go.” And she did.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Yang sat in the car and facepalmed. Behind the driver’s seat, Jaune said, “I can’t believe you  _ said  _ that!”

“I know!” She groaned. “She wasn’t happy with me, of course, so I ran and found you guys, but God, I shouldn’t have pushed so much!”

“Well,” Jaune pulled into his parents’ driveway. “At least you’re only staying with me and my folks for a few more days before your dad can come and get you. As long as we avoid the mall, you probably won’t run into her again.”

She considered the thought. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for driving and letting me crash at your folks’ place, by the way. I really appreciate it.”

He shrugged. “It’s really the least I can do after you helped me study chemistry this semester. Besides, weren’t your dad and your little sister really sick? The way you made it sound, they weren’t in any condition to drive the however-many hours to Beacon, and I wasn’t going to just leave you.”

“Still, thanks.” She smiled.

The two of them swiftly unpacked the car and unbuckled the little squirt in the backseat. Yang took her purchases inside, the kid on her hip, and distracted the rest of Jaune’s family while Jaune smuggled their presents up to his room. Later, Jaune came knocking on her door. 

“Hey Yang, Saph and Terra want to take the little one to the bookstore tomorrow afternoon for some ‘reading with Santa’ thing, and I think I might go with them. You in?”

“Yeah, sure.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

They had barely been in the bookstore for a few minutes before they lost the kid. In their defense, Saph and Terra had run to the bathroom, and Jaune had put him down for one second, just one (during which he and Yang fangirled over the newest work of Wick Wiordan), before going to pick him back up again. However, the kid was nowhere in sight. They called his name, but he didn’t come. They searched the section they were in, but that didn’t work either. If they were being completely honest, Jaune and Yang were starting to panic.

That is, until they saw the little baby crawl across the carpet in the R-rated section. Goodness gracious.

They booked it over there, Yang leading the way. She was about to turn around a bookshelf when she heard a voice go, “Oh. Um, hello. Wait, weren’t you at the mall yesterday? Nonono, don’t look at the books!”

Yang knew that voice. It had snapped at her not 24 hours ago. Her heart beat faster.

“Come on, up you go, let’s go find your-” The girl from the mall came around the shelf and nearly crashed into Yang. She blinked, then Yang blinked, then they blinked at each other.

“Hi again!” Yang squeaked.

“Hi. You, um…” She looked down at him, and then back up at Yang. “You lost your child.”

The girl was holding Jaune’s nephew in one arm and a book called  _ Ninjas of Love _ under the other. Jaune sighed in relief and took the kid, thanking her profusely. As Jaune walked away, scolding the baby(who babbled happily), Yang found herself looking between the girl and Jaune. The girl’s yellow eyes, just as beautifully golden as they were yesterday, glanced down at Yang’s shirt. Yang quickly murmured her own thanks, and then followed Jaune. It wasn’t until that night that Yang had remembered that she had been wearing her favorite tank top under her jacket.

When her father called the house later that night, Yang was in the middle of looking at  _ Ninjas of Love _ on Darnes and Swobles’ website (what? Mall Girl didn’t seem like the type to be into garbage writing). Her family was almost completely better and would be able to pick Yang up the next day. She gave him Jaune’s parents’ address and went downstairs to help Terra make gingerbread cookies. Once she went home, she didn’t expect to ever see Mall Girl again.

Oh, how little she knew.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Christmas came and went (her dad got her a poster from her favorite boy band; Ruby got her a good amount of her favorite chocolates), and before she knew it she was back off to Beacon University, a school far away enough from her home that, in contrast to the three feet of snow Patch got each year, barely got below 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. Her schedule for the spring semester was an amalgamation of gen-ed classes, since she hadn’t decided on a major yet. Luckily, her earliest class was a 10 am Intro to Faunus History class that met Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Her professor, Dr. Oobleck, had good reviews online, though it seemed that he was kind of eccentric and assigned seats and project groups. Still, he apparently made the class fun and interesting and didn’t give out a whole lot of homework, which was a definite plus.

On the first day, the seating chart was projected on the front board of the lecture hall. Yang squinted at it: she was second from the aisle in the third row, with Nora Valkyrie on the inside and someone named Blake Belladonna on the outside. Well, Nora was already in her seat, animatedly talking to the black-haired boy with a pink streak beside her. Yang sat down and got out her notebook. Nora struck up a conversation with her, introducing the boy beside her as her boyfriend, Ren. 

While her back was turned, the seat beside her moved. She glanced back and was met with striking golden eyes; her mind blanked.

“Oh! Your name is Blake!” she said.

The other girl gave her a dry look. “Yes, and yours must be Yang. Hello again.”

“Hi!” Blake was talking to her, even if it was rather curtly. Yang could work with that. “I didn’t know you’d be interested in faunus history!”

Blake squinted at her, and the black bow on her head twitched. Then Yang got it.

“I totally wasn’t thinking when I said that! Sorry!” Could the gods just smite her? Please?

Blake rolled her eyes, pulling out her own notebook and pens. Yang was about to compliment the Wundertale buttons on her bag, but then Dr. Oobleck started his discussion of his syllabus and a brief lecture on their first unit, prehistoric faunus history. As soon as class was over, Blake darted out of the room. Yang would have to wait to make a better impression.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Over the next couple weeks, Yang was disappointed to say she hadn’t made much progress with Blake. Honestly, she wasn’t that interested in her anymore, or at least not in a romantic sense. Her golden eyes still took Yang’s breath away, but Yang just wanted to make sure Blake didn’t feel threatened by her. 

So, she talked to her from time to time. She did end up complimenting Blake’s buttons, which barely evoked a “Thanks.” in response. If Blake wore a different color bow, Yang would tell her how much it matched her outfit. Similar response. If Yang missed something that Dr. Oobleck said, she’d ask Blake if she had heard, and she usually had. Maybe having four ears came in handy like that. 

_ Wait, would she need four earbuds in order to properly immerse herself in music? _ Yang thought to herself one day. She almost asked Blake, but didn’t know if that would fall into ‘ignorant questions’ territory. She’d be better off not knowing in that case. 

Over the coming weeks, Blake started to pop up everywhere. Yang ran into her in the dining hall, the football games, the bookstore, the ice cream shop, and even the local fish market! Yang went to play video games at Jaune’s dorm and passed Blake and this blonde boy (Jaune later said his name was Sun Wukong) walking toward the stairs on the other end of the hall. Blake probably didn’t see her, but if she did, she didn’t say anything. However, Yang must have either done something right or very, very wrong, because Sun’s voice carried, and as he opened the heavy stairway door he said, “So, tell me about this Yang girl you keep mentioning.” 

Blake, quieter, sighed and said, “Sun, she is  _ absolutely-“  _ And then the door shut behind her, leaving Yang and her dropped jaw to freeze until Jaune opened his door. 

While she and Jaune were gaming, she told Jaune of her plight. He thought for a moment, then asked, “Maybe you need a distraction, just something to relax with a bit. Do you want me to see if you can join my circle of Ghouls and Grimm? We’re nearing a tavern, and sometimes the GM will let us add or remove people if we aren’t at major point in the campaign.”

Yang considered it, then agreed. She didn’t know enough of the races to make a character on her own, but Jaune’s suggestion of a Dragonborn fighter seemed pretty sweet.  _ This will be fun _ , she told herself.  _ I can whoop some butt, take a break from classes and thinking about Blake. Yeah, this will be good.  _

Jump to a week later, when Yang found out 1) Sun was the GM and 2) he had had a similar idea to Jaune and brought along his friend,  _ Blake _ , to join the circle as a half-elf ranger. 

Great.

(It did actually turn out great, because no one else in the circle was a ranged class, and there was a puzzle at one point that required a bow and arrow. They would have died were it not for Blake’s character.)

Suddenly,  _ Blake  _ started engaging  _ Yang  _ in conversation, asking her if she knew what snacks were being brought to the next G&G session and if there was anything in particular that Blake should pick up. If Yang accidentally dropped her pencil, there was a 50/50 chance Blake would either get it for her or catch it before it fell. (Did Blake have cat-like reflexes? Maybe?). It felt like progress and sent butterflies through Yang’s stomach with each interaction. The first time Yang told her a bad pun, Blake laughed hard enough she almost cried, and as Yang joined in, she thought she was going to die right then and there from how adorable this girl was. 

Dr. Oobleck assigned groups based on seating for a small project, and Yang ended up having Blake, Ren, and Nora over to her dorm to work on it. It was kind of cramped, but Yang was the only one whose roommates would definitely be gone for the day. They submitted and presented the project, and they got an A, so, Yang really couldn’t have been happier.

Then Blake fell asleep in class three lectures in a row. Each time, Blake would ask to see her notes from the last lecture, and each time Yang would wordlessly pass them over with a concerned glance. 

After this happened for a fourth time, Yang asked, “Blake, are you doing alright? Why aren’t you getting enough sleep?”

Blake yawned and quietly said, “I’m fine. I’ve just been busy with other stuff. Pre-law isn’t an easy track, you know.”

Yang blinked. “You’re pre-law? I mean, I knew you were really smart, but wow! That’s so cool!”

“It’s a lot of reading and memorizing laws.” Blake shrugged, taking a sip from her tea mug. “But I’ll do it if it means I can represent Faunus in court.”

Yang nodded. There had been some especially discriminatory laws considered recently, something about a curfew in some of the rougher neighborhoods and maybe even limiting Faunus to one child per couple. Intro to Faunus History had a test scheduled for the next Monday, on the morning after a protest against the possible laws was supposed to happen. Yang considered going to the protest, but her grade was on borderline B-C territory. She needed to study.

That was how Yang found herself in her dorm at 11:00 at night that Sunday, drilling herself on the different Faunus-dependent victories during the Great War, when Blake called her scroll. She picked up immediately.

“Hey Blake, what’s up-“

“Can Sun and I crash at your place for the night?” There was screaming in the background, and Blake sounded out of breath, like she had been running. That set off alarms. 

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Yang said warily, sending a silent thanks to the gods that her roommate was at her boyfriend’s for the night. “Blake, are you okay? What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain when we get there. Thank you so much.”

Yang didn’t have to wait long before she heard the knock on her bedroom window near the fire escape. She quickly opened the window, and Blake helped a wincing Sun get inside. For the first time that Yang could remember, Blake looked shaken up about something. She didn’t have time to focus on Blake’s expression, though, because Sun was holding his shoulder like it hurt. Yang quickly grabbed an ice pack from their dorm’s mini-freezer, wrapped it in a hand towel, and passed it to him. He nodded in thanks, taking a seat in Yang’s desk chair, and the three of them fell silent. Somewhere in the distance, police sirens wailed at the night sky.

Questions bubbled up and out of Yang before she could stop them. “Are you guys okay? What happened? Who hurt Sun? Do I need to beat someone up?”

“No!” Blake said worriedly, waving her hands negatively. Her sleeve was ripped. “Yang, I appreciate it, but we….” She trailed off, looking at Sun, then sighed. “You know the protest tonight?” Yang nodded. “We went to it, and for the most part it was peaceful, like it was  _ supposed  _ to be-”

“Right up until the White Fang showed up,” Sun growled.

Blake nodded solemnly. “The police got involved, and it wasn’t exactly pretty. One minute there’s a steady line of them in their riot gear, and the next they’re throwing tear gas at us and arresting as many people as they can, whether we’re part of the White Fang or not.” She shook her head. “You can probably imagine the chaos, everyone running in different directions in an attempt to get out. Even in a couple hours from now, they might still be searching for more Faunus. In the morning, the news is probably going to make it sound like it was violent to begin with.”

Yang let the words hang, taking them in. After a moment, she said, “Sun, I take it someone knocked into you? You don’t seem the type to choose violence over peace.”

Sun carefully lifted up the ice pack and part of his shirt. A purple patch on his shoulder stood out starkly against his tanned skin. After replacing the ice pack, he said, “Yeah, one of the officers’ kind of bumped me with his shield, but Blake helped me out.”

_ At least they’re both okay _ , Yang thought, slowly moving over to where she and her roommate kept the medicine. “Do either of you need anything else? I have advil, icy hot patches, maybe even some athletes tape…” She trailed off when they shook their heads. “Okay, let me show you guys all my blankets.”

Blake and Sun ended up in a pile of blankets on the floor, eating some leftover pizza that Yang was able to nuke well enough in the microwave. They tried to insist that they didn’t need anything, but Yang wasn’t about to be a bad host, and besides, she saw how Sun’s eyes lit up when she mentioned pizza. She didn’t ask any more questions, unless they were questions when she and Blake quizzed each other for their test. It was with dawn’s first lights peeking through the window that they finally got some sleep, alarms set for an hour before class and blankets pulled up high. Sun let himself out, writing a note of ‘thanks a lot, Yang, gotta dash to my 8 am lecture, catch ya later!’. This, of course, left Yang alone with Blake.

When the alarm went off, Yang got up and shut it off. She called, “Blake, we need to get up.”

“Mmmmm 5 more minutes.”

Yang rolled her eyes in spite of her smile, and she gently nudged the lump under the blankets with her foot. “Come onnn, we have to go get some actual food.”

“Or we could sleep.”

“Nope!” Yang laid down beside Blake and peeled back the covers. Blake’s beautiful golden eyes narrowed at her, her fierceness severely weakened by her messy raven hair, disheveled clothes, and the surrounding pile of bright yellow blankets and orange pillows (the last of which now had Blake’s alluring scent of vanilla). Yang couldn’t keep back the grin as she said, “As cute as you look right now, we should really get ready.”

Blake blinked, expression blanking, and started to get up. Yang did the same, mentally thinking that she should probably go brush her teeth. 

“You think I’m cute?” Blake asked, still clearly half-asleep, and Yang’s mind went through a lot words, including but not limited to  _ holy shit _ and  _ don’t mess it up don’t mess it up don’t be weird _ . 

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” She didn’t know how that managed to sound calm, but it did, and hopefully that was good enough.  “I’m going to go find a toothbrush for you; you’re welcome to my closet if you want to change clothes,” she said before fleeing the room and closing the door behind her. 

When Blake came out of Yang’s room, she was wearing Yang’s ‘Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new’ tank top under Yang’s army jacket, looking absolutely adorable. This, naturally, sent Yang’s mind into a gay panic, and it occurred to Yang that in the back of her closet hung a lesbian flag, right where Blake could probably see it. She somehow kept her cool, though, and managed to get herself and Blake to class without being a complete embarrassment. 

(She also found out that Blake’s favorite kind of tea was chai, and Blake liked the apple scones Yang got from Starchucks. That was fun).

After the test, they grabbed food together, and when they had to go their separate ways, both of them seemed to be delaying things. They must have said their goodbyes three times over and found excuses to call each other back when Blake said, “Wait, Yang, one more thing.”

“Hm?”

“Thank you for last night.” Blake tucked a bit of hair behind her ear; Yang wanted to hug her. Would hugging her be a bad idea? “It means a lot to me. And Sun. Sun and me. I.” She looked away and blushed, and Yang thought,  _ Yep, definitely want to hug her. _

So she did. She reached out, gently wrapped her arms around Blake, and gave her a small squeeze. Blake tensed, then relaxed, and Yang felt Blake hug her back. Gods, Blake smelled  _ amazing _ . Anyways, Yang’s mind kept her coherent, and she said, “Hey, it was my pleasure. I’m glad you’re alright. That said,” She pulled back just enough to look Blake in the eye. “I was serious last night when I asked if there was someone I needed to beat up. I would be very willing to hurt whoever in the White Fang thought it’d be a good idea to interfere in you guys’ protest if you just say the word.”

Blake shook her head. “I appreciate the sentiment, but the White Fang really is just a misled group of Faunus. How would you even plan to do that, anyway?”

“Eh, I’d figure something out,” Yang said, lifting one arm to flex her biceps. “I  _ do _ work out, you know.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” Blake remarked softly, almost to herself. Yang blinked. Blake pulled away and left before Yang could ask what she meant by that comment, but if she meant what Yang hoped she meant…..Oh, she was in  _ deep _ with this girl.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Time went on, and Yang apparently couldn’t control herself around Blake anymore, because she flirted half the time and was touching Blake in some way the other half. It started small, little winks and nudges, and soon it escalated into leaning on her almost constantly and frequent greetings of “Hey hun.” The craziest part was, Blake reciprocated each gesture with her own, smiling and glancing at Yang out of the corner of her eye and responding, “Oh, hey sweetie.”

However, as Yang didn’t know if Blake liked girls or not, she was left feeling unsure about where exactly they stood and what Blake considered them.

Little did she know, she’d soon find out.

“Jaune, what do you  _ mean _ , you’re sick? You were fine just last night at G&G!”

Yang was pacing around her room, on a call with Jaune. They were scheduled and had already paid a non-refundable $15 each to go to a pairs’ baking class that started in, oh, only 40 minutes, and now he was suddenly sick.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s not your fault you got sick. Do you want me to come by later and bring some chicken noodle soup? You sure? Okay….Well, I guess I’m going to go tell the people running the thing that we won’t be there. It’d be rude to keep them waiting. Okay. Get well soon. Bye.”

She hung up, taking a deep breath. It was what it was. 

So, she darted over to the hall hosting the baking lesson and was a step away from the check-in desk when-

“Yang?”

She turned to see Blake coming from the opposite direction, and she waved. “Oh, hey! What are you doing here?”

Blake said, “I’m here to cancel, actually. Sun was supposed to take the class with me, something about surprising Neptune for his birthday, but he suddenly got sick.”

“That happened to me, too!” Yang said. “Jaune was supposed to come with me, but he called this morning and said he was really sick.”

The lady at the check-in table, evidently listening, said, “Well, if both of you are missing a partner, why not work together? You’d get more of your money’s worth.”

Yang and Blake looked at each other, then said in unison, “Sure.”

They were given some aprons to borrow, then shown to a room that had several cooking stations set up, one of which had Ren and Nora standing beside it.

“Hey you guys!” Nora called, zipping over before pulling them to her and Ren’s station. “I didn’t know you two were dating!”

Blake stiffened beside Yang before dissolving into a fit of coughing, which left Yang to stutter, “We, um...We aren’t?”

Nora blinked. “But this is a couple’s class. Not that you aren’t welcome, it’s just that the flyer said ‘pairs’. I was just curious!”

Yang remembered the flyer. “I thought that just referred to a partnership, platonic or otherwise.”

“There were also hearts all over the design.”

“That could have just been because the first classes available were near Valentine’s Day!”

Beside her, Blake muttered, “Last time I trust Sun to schedule something.”

“It’ll probably be fine,” Nora reassured them. “I think the idea is more to spend time with the other person, which works well for two friends or romantic partners!”

Then one of the ladies from the check-in table went to the front of the room, clapped her hands, and began the class. They were to follow the given recipe to make brownies, except instead of putting the mix into a square pan, they were going to pour it into heart-shaped muffin tins. Once they cooled, the brownies could be decorated. Simple, right?

Wrong.

For one thing, Blake and Yang were put on the other side of the room from Nora and Ren, and all the couples around them were  _ very _ lovey-dovey. Like, one of them kept popping chocolate chips into each other’s mouths, and another kept using pet names like ‘smoochkins’ and ‘honey buns’. It was sweet, sure, but it got kind of tiring after the first 10 minutes.

For another thing, Yang wasn’t entirely sure how to take Blake’s discomfort with their current situation. It could be nervousness, but it could also be rejection. However, Yang didn’t let herself dwell on it much; she almost knocked over the flour the first time. 

And for one last thing, the cooking and cooling time was spent in a mandatory criss-cross applesauce circle in the front of the room, during which they went around the circle and had each couple share how they met. There weren’t many, if any, ways to delicately say “I accidentally dumped food court Chinese food on her head.” Each couple also had to come up with a team name for themselves. Blake and Yang couldn’t come up with one, so they gave it up to the others to decide. Nora piped up, “BUMBLEBEE!” and it stuck.

All that aside, once Blake and Yang pushed past the awkwardness of the situation, it was actually a lot of fun. Yang tried throwing a bunch of chocolate chips into the air so she could catch them, only to have her tosses be completely off. Blake swiftly took the bag, and thus started a back-and-forth competition of who catch the most consecutively. Yang was in the lead with a score of 8 before the head lady took the chocolate chips away until it was time to decorate. 

Speaking of decorating, Blake was amazing at it!!!! Here Yang was, barely capable of making a decent smiley face, meanwhile her crush was making a multi-colored fire out of frosting and sprinkles. Yang tried not to stare, but she couldn’t help it. When Blake finally caught her looking, Yang said, “You are absolutely amazing.” Blake smiled and blushed at that, glancing back at her as if to say ‘oh, hush, you’, and Yang took every chance to compliment her work from then on.

But alas, for time really did fly when Yang was having fun. The class coordinators gave them tupperware to take their creations home in, but they only gave one to each pair. As they walked back toward the direction of the dorms, Blake and Yang debated who should take the brownies home.

“Blake, you did a fantastic job on that frosting! Take them!”

“I already have plenty of sweets from Neptune forgetting his own little cakes. You take them!”

Across the street, the lights of an arcade caught Yang’s eye. Specifically, the lights on one particular dancing game. Yang’s favorite dancing game, in fact.

She turned to Blake and said, “Hey, what do you say to another competition?”

Blake’s bow perked up slightly. “What did you have in mind?.”

“Step Step Uprising, best of 3, winner picks who takes them home.”

Blake’s eyes narrowed, and her lips quirked. Oh, Yang might have a good competitor in her after all, if Blake didn’t turn Yang’s legs to jelly first.

“You’re on.”

Yang was the only one with cash on her at the moment, so she got tokens while Blake picked a song. The first round was a blur, both of them on the highest difficulty and both of them doing fairly well. However, it was Yang that won, so she picked the song for round two. Blake totally dominated that round, and it was with no small amount of grace that Yang accepted the fact that she might lose. 

That didn’t mean she had to take it lying down, though.

“This is it, Xiao Long,” Blake teased, grinning like she was enjoying this as much as Yang was. “All or nothing.”

Yang tied her hair into a ponytail and shed her jacket dramatically. “Bring it, Belladonna.”

Blake picked the hardest song and difficulty, glancing at Yang as if to see if she’d chicken out. Yang firmly selected the same difficulty. Time seemed to simultaneously accelerate and slow down during that final round. Step up. Right. Down. Left. Down. Down. Freeze. One. Two. Onetwothree. Jump. Jump. Up. Right. Down. Leftandright. Upanddown. Jump jump. The screen flashed words at her, “Marvelous” and “Perfect” and “200 Combo”. She felt the bass with her heartbeat, she was that into it. Or maybe it was because the volume was all the way up. Yang didn’t know. She didn’t care. All that mattered were the arrows on the screen.

Finally, the last arrow came and went. Yang and Blake panted as they leaned on the bars attached to the play area. Nothing was said as they waited for the final scores. 

“Tie!” the machine cheered. Both girls looked up in surprise. Sure enough, yeah, they had both gotten 100% of the moves, on the hardest difficulty, on the hardest song. Yang looked to Blake, who was staring at her. She was still too tired to speak, so she held out a hand. Blake took it and shook it. 

Yang said, “I guess we could always just split the brownies. Or eat enough that we can each carry the rest.”

Blake nodded, still staring. “Hey Yang?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to go on a date with me?”

Yang blinked, exhaustion slowing brain function. “Oh, yeah! Sure thing!”

Blake let out a puff of air. “Fantastic. Have you seen the latest Wondrous Creatures and How to Locate Them film?”

“No, not yet.” Was this really happening? Yang discreetly pinched herself. It was indeed happening.

“Next Friday, after our next test? I’ll buy popcorn.”

Yang nodded. “I’m in.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

“.......I think I might need to sit down for a bit after that last round.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

Blake and Yang gathered their things, going to rest on a bench outside the arcade. While they were resting, they noticed two blonde-haired boys walking on the other side of the street. Yang nudged Blake.

“Hey,” she said, “Doesn’t that look like Jaune and Sun?”

Blake nodded. “Yeah, yeah it does. And neither of them look half as sick as they made themselves sound.”

The girls looked at each other. 

“JAUNE ARC!”

“SUN WUKONG!”

Jaune and Sun jumped, and when they saw Yang’s hand on her hip and Blake’s raised eyebrow, they fled the scene. It wasn’t until the following morning that they admitted to faking their illnesses in hopes of making Yang and Blake spend more time together and thus maybe become a couple. Blake wanted to scold them for meddling, but Yang distracted her with a kiss on the cheek. 

After all, all’s well that ends well.


End file.
